By Stephen Whitley, KERA 90.1 Commentator
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-577695.mp3
Dallas, TX –
I never thought I would do it. In fact I vowed I never would. Why pay for something you can get for free? The closest I ever came to paying for radio was my yearly pledge to KERA. Then I returned to Dallas after six months working on the road and the formats of the other radio stations I listened to for music had changed, and not for the better. So I bought a satellite receiver for my car and paid my first months fees for satellite radio.
Clear Channel, one of the largest owners of radio and media outlets in the nation, is a perfect example of why I feel commercial radio has, in the process of losing its way, lost touch with listeners like me. On their website their "creed" begins by stating they are in the business of "helping their customers grow their businesses through maximizing our customer's satisfaction." They trot out the oft used line that they believe their "people are (their) most important asset" and they list their "core values". No where in this creed or in these core values do they mention the consumers of their product, the listeners. In the quest for maximizing profits and achieving core values they have forgotten, to borrow a term from corporate speak, the end user.
During the 1980s and 1990s the federal government changed rules that allowed companies to own multiple media outlets in a particular market which paved the way for the current lack of originality in radio. As media companies became larger and larger, they became more homogenized. In the process of consolidation, I believe the media companies have grown stronger while their product has grown weaker. I didn't leave radio, radio left me.
My first memories of radio are from the 1970s when I was growing up in Winnsboro, my Mom would listen to KLIF and WBAP, both Dallas AM stations whose signal reached 100 miles away. I don't remember much about those stations except that WBAP was country and KLIF played rock. In the 1980s when I began driving, FM became the norm and a few FM stations sprung up in Tyler but most played very middle of the road soft rock or country. In the early 1990s I began listening to The Edge when it was still at 94.5 and I drove to college most mornings listening to The Jerry Lentz Experience which made me laugh out loud and fall in love with the Dallas music scene. One of the best radio stations I've ever listened to was Kilgore College's radio station which had a Saturday afternoon opera show hosted by a local opera buff, Jim Yancey, who turned me on to opera. In the late 1990s the programming on Dallas radio became stale. The alternative stations began playing music by artists I didn't know and played less and less local music. Classic Rock stations like the Eagle changed formats and the stations that took their place were pale comparisons. Luckily I was able to find refuge in KERA. The local radio personalities like Jerry Lentz, and Red Beard were gone and the people who replaced them were, quite frankly, annoying (except for Chris Jagger who is almost as funny as Lentz). There are few announcers or DJs on satellite. There is not a lot of chatter to get in the way of the music. The great thing about satellite radio is, there are so many formats there is something for everyone, which is ironically what the large media corporations have tried to do on a local level.
I'm not against a company making profits. That is, of course, why radio stations are in business. What I'm against are companies who get sweetheart deals to purchase public airwaves then completely disregard the public. So I've decided to cut out the middle man. I've decided the only way to be happy in the two or three hours a week I spend in my car is to pay for radio.
I still listen to KERA regularly and to WRR when I go to sleep at night, but when I'm ready to listen to music, I switch to satellite. And if someone like me who resisted satellite for so long and who has such a long history of listening to commercial radio can switch, can the rest of the population be far behind?
Stephen Whitley is a writer from Dallas.
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